The hour of Power's third spinoff series is nearly upon us, and Joseph Sikora is more than ready for his character Tommy Egan to take the spotlight.
Power Book IV: FORCE finds Tommy in a brand new big rich town, with a clean slate and new, unfamiliar territory primed for takeover. Though known to be the series' wild card – with one always loaded in the chamber and a devil-may-care, take-no-prisoners attitude – Sikora believes Tommy will exhibit more from his wide range of emotions than his famous reckless abandon.
"I think that just as we saw in Power, Tommy's a fully actualized character. I think we saw him at the highest of the high. We saw him be incredibly aggressive, but we saw him be very tender and loving with Cash and LaKeisha," he said. "However, we're going to see somebody who's lost all of that."
"We are seeing somebody in dire straits. We're seeing a guy that is usually cocksure and confident in New York, in his blood, he's wearing his own skin, and very sure of not only himself but his surroundings. We've taken both of those things away from him."
Sikora believes anyone who's had to turn their back on their past and make a move to a new place will be able to commiserate.
"We've taken his family away from him; his brother in Ghost. Tasha and Tariq have turned their back on him. His mother has disowned him. The mob is against him. The Serbs are against him. The Tejadas are against him. He literally can't go back home again."
But this situation provides an opportunity for Tommy to build himself back up from rock bottom, and make his new city whatever he wants it to be.
"Like the poster says, it's a different city, it's different rules. But, it's the same Tommy. And, if I know Tommy, which I know him pretty well, he's going to change those rules. Tommy's going to live by Tommy's rules."
Even though Tommy lives by his own no-holds-barred rules and is a cold-blooded killer, he has also managed to become one of Power fans' favorite characters due to his wit and comedic timing. Sikora as an actor is beloved at least partially due to the humorous nature he's able to bring to a character that could easily be grizzled and scary.
"In the first season, we were getting to know these characters. I thought, "what don't I see on the page?" What I didn't necessarily see on the page was the lightheartedness, the comedy," he said. "[For instance,] when Tommy's walking Holly into his apartment for the first time, and there's a gun on the
pool table, and he's like, "let me put a coat over that real quick!" You do some of that and then the writers start writing for you."
Advocating for his character has helped Sikora make Tommy the unforgettable aspect of the Power Universe that he is today.
"You have to make those decisions for yourself as an actor of what to fulfill that character, to make it a real human. That's where I went with it because otherwise it just would've been all steam ahead, all aggression, all scrunched brow."
"To make it a full character that we could all relate to, you have to find the funny in the situations, because I think that in life that's really what happens."
Power Book IV: FORCE premieres Sunday, February 6 on Starz.